Mr. Lee did the job for exactly the quote he promised over the phone for rebuilding my transmission on an older classic MBZ 300E, it was about half the price of westside quotes, even cheaper than out in the Valley!
I was warned by most everyone not to trust someone in Koreatown but after reading the reviews here and talking to Mr. Lee, as well as the owners of recommended and popular shops, I had my car towed to his shop from the Pico Blvd./ Robertson area, with some trepidation because when you have to have a car towed in by AAA you're stuck.
What really sold me was I also called for quotes from other shops in E. Hollywood and Koreatown and the other Asian owners all had only good words about Mr. Lee!
"Old school but very good work."
The car had been towed to a shop I trusted which had done good work before but they were busy and it took them almost a week just to diagnose that it was the transmission!
By this time I'd rented a car for a week and it was frustrating but I wanted to get the job done right for the lowest possible cost as the usual $2500 cost was too much for my age of car though it has low mileage, and I'd already replaced so many things I want to keep it running.
We agreed he wouldn't start the work until he confirmed it needed a rebuild and he could do it for the price quoted.
He kept me posted by phone, it took the amount of time promised (5 full days) and when I Ubered to pick it up, is the first time I met him -- he had done the work himself is why he could charge so much less, didn't farm out the work, and he showed me all the old parts, explained what he had done and he had even fixed a bad oil leak that 2 previous Westside shops had been unable to fix, including the arrogant owner Gregg @Westside Mercedes in Santa Monica near Wilshire & 9th, they wanted to charge me hundreds for new seals when the problem had been a leaky hose connecting to the transmission line! They had the car up on a hoist and ran the engine super-fast til the oil splashed and exclaimed about it, no attempt to find out what it really was, they just claimed it was the cam seals and $5000 worth of other repairs as well. Actually with a new fuel pump and radiator the car didn't need anything.
They became very rude when I questioned that, gave me the "if you can't afford to drive a Mercedes in Santa Monica you shouldn't drive one or live here" attitude in so many words, wow! Plus they'd wanted to do a transmission flush for hundreds more instead of just changing out the fluid when from what I have learned, that can actually damage some older cars and Mr. Lee said I should just change the transmission fluid every year at this point.
It came with the standard one-year or 12-K mile warranty.
So it turned out that the money spent actually was offset by expenses I would've had and still not had a rebuilt transmission, I can't say enough about the workmanship and honesty of Mr. Lee, he's the kind of tradesman who's in short supply in America these days, what a find! read more
